Ménière's disease

Meniere's disease / symptom:

In medical terms, it's a disease that affects the inner ear resulting in gradual hearing impairment, vertigo (dizziness), tinnitus (ringing of the ears). Severity varies, from annoyance to debilitating vertigo where the patient is unable to move.

In chiropractic terms - subluxation of the upper cervical vertebra resulting in nerve interference (nerve flow is reduced) that does not allow the body to heal itself.

Using the Gonstead Chiropractic method of specific analysis -- swelling and redness of the skin was noted on the rear hairline of the patient's neck, reduced range of motion of the upper cervical vertebra (C2 vertebra), and nervoscope indicated nerve pressure at C2/C3 spinal nerve level. Xrays revealed on the lateral view - facet imbrication, and AP view revealed PRS inferior.

Correction involved patient in the seated cervical chair, doctor's arm aiming straight up towards the ceiling to correct inferiority and reseating the C2 vertebra forward back onto C3 vertebra using a specific Gonstead seated cervical adjustment.

In the past year, 4 patients who presented with Meniere's were resolved within 2-4 weeks.




Inflammation of the upper cervical -- resulting in redness of the skin, and swelling (edema)






Meniere Patient #5 -- Lateral view shows facet imbrication (reduced space -- slight black line where circled) and C2 vertebra is inferior (tilted backwards) in relation to C3 vertebra. AP view shows C2 PRS with the dens line nearly vertical (indicates need to aim straight for ceiling). Patient received first adjustment Feb 22 2012 and scheduled for followup to see how well she is responding to the adjustment.





Full spine AP/Lat of the most severe Meniere case in my clinic. Intense debilitating vertigo like extreme sea-sickness, patient was unable to balance herself, and constant vomiting due to vertigo. Loss of hearing in both ears. Prescription medications were ineffective and netti pot had slight relief for 2 hours.




Closeup pictures. Lateral view shows facet imbrication (no space at all, completely jammed) and inferiority tilting of C2 upon C3. AP view reveals C2 PRI-inferior. Patient was adjusted C2 PR inferior twice. The 1st week reduced 80% of her symptoms, no further adjustments in week 2 or 3, her body naturally healed itself 2 weeks post-adjustment and currently asymptomatic as of this post Feb 24 2012 since Oct 2011.

Yo yo dieting increases CVD risk

We all want to lose weight... and there's nothing wrong with dieting... question is, are you losing your weight the healthy way? A recent study below shows that yo-yo dieting increases your cardiovascular disease risk.

How I lost 45 pounds and kept it off over the course of 4 years. I kept it simple and realistic.

1. Reduce sugar and sweets in your diet. So if you drink soda, replace it with water. You can lose 10 pounds right there!

2. Avoid fried foods and junk foods. All the chemicals in the foods are harmful to your body, whatever your body can't break down, it will wall off and store it away in fat as a protective defensive mechanism!

3. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables! This is key! Fresh fruits and veggies have a lot of vital enzymes and nutrients that many vitamin pills or supplements don't have. Your body needs those nutrients for optimal health. If it doesn't function right, your body can't burn the fuel (food you ate) properly and stores it away as fat!

4. Start an exercise program you enjoy doing. I admit it, I don't like to exercise but I love martial arts! Find something you love to do, whether it's basketball, swimming, gardening, doesn't matter. The key is you have to enjoy it. If you don't, you won't stick with the program.





Weight Fluctuations Among Normal-Weight Individuals Increases CVD Risk

March 5, 2010 (San Francisco, California) -- Weight cycling, where an individual's body-mass index (BMI) fluctuates during a two-year period, is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease among normal-weight individuals, according to the results of a new study [1]. These weight cyclers have a risk of adverse events similar to individuals who are overweight, while overweight individuals who cycled did not experience an additional increased risk of cardiovascular events over and above the risk associated with their increased weight, report
investigators.

"We were looking at the overall weight status--how heavy the individual was between the ages of 40 and 55 years--and whether or not the weight went up and down during that period," lead investigator *Dr Molly Waring* (University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worchester) told
*heart/wire/ *. "We found that compared with people who were normal weight, or pretty steady weight, the normal-weight individuals whose weight went up and down during the two-year period, as well as those who were overweight and obese, all had a higher risk of cardiovascular
disease and death."

The results of the study were presented here this week at *EPI|PNAM 2010*, the *Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention* and *Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism 2010 Conference*.

*Weight Across Time Rather Than a Point in Time*

To *heart/wire/ *, Waring said the purpose of the study was to examine patients' weight across a spectrum of years rather than a point in time to determine whether changes in weight influenced their health risk. The thinking, she said, was that a patient's weight at age 40 or 50 was less relevant than weight over the course of a lifetime.

Using data from the *Framingham Heart Study*, the researchers quantified the effect of overall weight status and weight cycling in 1429 participants aged 40 to 55 years old. Weight status and weight cycling was categorized using component scoring that allowed researchers to capture the weight patterns across middle age. In this study, weight cycling was defined as a change of one BMI unit within the two-year period. That works out to be about five pounds for an individual who is five feet tall and seven pounds for six-foot tall male, said Waring.

Results showed that compared with an overall normal-weight trajectory without weight cycling, normal-weight individuals whose weight went up and down over the study period had a 50% greater risk of cardiovascular disease events and a 40% greater risk of cardiovascular mortality. These normal-weight cyclers were also at a significantly increased risk of cerebrovascular accidents and coronary heart disease events when compared with normal-weight individuals whose weight did not fluctuate.

*Risks of Cardiovascular Disease and Cardiovascular Mortality*

Events


Adjusted hazard ratio (95% CI)

*Cardiovascular disease events*



*Normal weight, no cycling*



Referent

*Normal weight, cycling*



1.5 (1.2-2.0)

*Overweight, no cycling*



1.7 (1.3-2.2)

*Overweight, cycling*



1.8 (1.4-2.2)

*Obese*



2.7 (2.0-3.5)

*Cardiovascular mortality *



*Normal weight, no cycling*



Referent

*Normal weight, cycling*



1.4 (1.0-2.0)

*Overweight, no cycling*



1.3 (0.9-2.0)

*Overweight, cycling*



1.6 (1.1-2.2)

*Obese*



1.8 (1.1-2.9)

Comparatively, overweight individuals who maintained a constant weight and those whose weight cycled during middle age had similar risks of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and coronary heart disease events. In addition, they had similar risks of cardiovascular and overall mortality.

"Among people who are overweight, those whose weight varied within the two-year period were not at any higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death than those overweight individuals whose weight remained steady," said Waring. "I think that's a positive finding from the study,
because we know how difficult it is for patients to lose weight and to keep it off. It's encouraging in that if they are trying to lose weight but gain it back because they're not able to maintain the lifestyle changes, it's not putting them at greater risk. The message is to keep trying."

For normal-weight patients, this study emphasized the importance of keeping the weight off, because even periods of normal weight won't protect against cardiovascular disease events if the patients' weight fluctuates up and down, she said.

References

1. Waring ME, Eaton CB, Lapane KL, et al. Weight cycling and overall
weight status during middle age and incident cardiovascular
disease events and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.
EPI|PNAM 2010; March 3, 2010; San Francisco, CA. Abstract P138.

Flaxseed Reduces Blood Lipids

Instead of relying on statin medications which have side-effects, including depriving your heart of Co-Enzyme Q10 for proper function, consider using Flax seed or fish oil which provides Omega 3 essential fatty acids to reduce your cholesterol and LDL levels!

Dr. Ryan Suh, DC
www.gonsteadny.com




July 29, 2009 — Whole flaxseed and flaxseed lignans significantly reduce circulating total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, showing their greatest effect in postmenopausal women and individuals with high initial cholesterol concentrations, according to the results of a meta-analysis published in the August 2009 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

"Owing to the promising results in preclinical models, many clinical trials have been performed to determine the outcomes of flaxseed intervention (whole flaxseed, flaxseed oil, or lignans) on various cardiometabolic risk factors, particularly blood lipids," write An Pan, MSc, from the Key Laboratory of Nutrition and Metabolism, Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China, and colleagues. "However, the findings from most of the previous clinical trials were inconsistent, and the discrepancies could be attributed to small sample size, insufficient study duration, variation in study designs, and diversity of the test product."

Total, LDL Cholesterol Levels Reduced

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether administration of flaxseed or its derivatives could improve total, LDL, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels and triglyceride levels by making use of the increased statistical power afforded by a meta-analysis.

The researchers searched all randomized controlled trials of flaxseed or its derivatives on lipid profiles in adults, which were published in English from January 1990 to October 2008. They also attempted to contact authors of unpublished data. Study quality was assessed with use of the Jadad score; 16 studies were classified as high quality (Jadad score of 4 or 5), and 12 studies were classified as low quality (Jadad score of 2 or 3).

The 28 trials used in the meta-analysis comprised a total of 1381 study subjects. Five were conducted exclusively in postmenopausal women, 1 was done in premenopausal women, 10 trials were conducted in men, 10 trials were conducted in both sexes, 1 trial did not indicate the sex composition of the study sample, and 1 trial reported results separately by sex.

The median duration of the trials was 8.5 weeks, (range, 2 - 52 weeks). Flaxseed in whole, ground, or defatted form was tested in 10 of the 28 trials in doses that ranged from 20 to 50 g (2 - 5 tablespoons), and flaxseed oil was tested in 13 of the trials.

A significant reduction in total cholesterol levels was found in studies using whole flaxseed, with a net change of –0.19 mmol/L (95% confidence interval [CI], –0.29 to –0.09 mmol/L) and also in studies using lignan supplements, where the net change was –0.28 mmol/L (95% CI, –0.55 to –0.01 mmol/L). Similarly, a significant reduction in LDL cholesterol levels was found with whole flaxseed (net change, –0.16 mmol/L; 95% CI, –0.25 to –0.06 mmol/L) and lignan supplements (–0.16 mmol/L; 95% CI, –0.31 to –0.01 mmol/L). However, there were no significant changes in total and LDL cholesterol levels with the intervention of flaxseed oil, the study authors report.

Women vs men had greater reductions in total cholesterol levels with flaxseed. The mean reduction for women was –0.24 mmol/L (95% CI, –0.36 to 0.12 mmol/L), and for men, the mean reduction was –0.09 mmol/L (95% CI, –0.05 to 0.23 mmol/L). The same was found with reductions in LDL cholesterol levels: for women, the mean reduction was –0.17 mmol/L (95% CI, –0.28 to –0.06 mmol/L), and for men, the mean reduction was –0.07 mmol/L (95% CI, –0.04 to 0.18 mmol/L).

The authors also report that total and LDL cholesterol levels were reduced to a greater degree in the high-quality studies (net change, –0.13 mmol/L; 95% CI, –0.24 to –0.02 mmol/L) vs the low-quality studies (net change, –0.08 mmol/L; 95% CI, 0.16 to –0.01 mmol/L). No significant changes were detected in the low-quality studies, they add.

When the studies were stratified according to initial lipid status, significant reductions in total cholesterol levels were found in the studies including subjects with high initial concentrations, defined as 5.7 mmol/L for total cholesterol and 3.4 mmol/L for LDL cholesterol. For these individuals, the mean change in total cholesterol level was –0.17 mmol/L (95% CI, –0.32 to –0.03 mmol/L), and the mean change in LDL cholesterol level was –0.13 mmol/L (95% CI, – 0.23 to –0.02 mmol/L). In comparison, the mean change in total cholesterol levels for subjects with lower initial concentrations was 0.03 mmol/L (95% CI, –0.11 to 0.17 mmol/L), and the mean change in LDL cholesterol levels was 0.00 mmol/L (95% CI, –0.12 to 0.12 mmol/L).

There were no significant changes in HDL cholesterol or triglyceride levels.

Interpret Findings With Caution

The authors point out that the limitations of their study include the heterogeneity of the studies in the meta-analysis, and a lack of information on the quality, quantity, and bioavailability of the flaxseed that was used. Therefore, they write, their findings must be interpreted with caution.

The results of this meta-analysis indicate that flaxseed consumption may be a useful dietary approach for the prevention of hypercholesterolemia, especially in some patient subgroups, the authors conclude. They add that further studies should be done to investigate the effectiveness of flaxseed supplementation on cardiometabolic risk factors other than blood lipids and, ultimately, on cardiovascular disease–related morbidity and mortality.

Dr. Pan has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

Am J Clin Nutr. 2009;90:288-297.Abstract